Muthill

RETURN TO THE GOOD SOUP GUIDE
A - Z

Muthill. Ah yes. What can one say about Muthill? Well, I suppose we could start with pronunciation, just so you don't make a pillock of yourself on the bus. It is not pronounced 'Mutt-hill', as in Hill of the Dog. Its pronunciation is more along the lines of 'Mooth-hill', as in Hill of the Mooth, or mouth. Are you still with me? Right then, now that we've got that small detail out of the way, what is Muthill actually like? Well, I initially passed through it on the bus. It looked like a seriously pretty little village, with a towery thing, a museum, and nice curvy streets. I wanted to explore it. And you should do so too, because at the end of the day exploring's fun. You never really know what's going to be around that corner until you're around it. It could be a giant's mouth, a giant mutt, or a big ginormous fluttery moth. Ye chist dinna ken. The very fact that it has an old towery thing is a strong indication of just how important Muthill once was. If you look at it on a map you can see that it sits on an old military road, and it's only about a mile away from a very important Roman road. The surrounding countryside is littered with Roman forts, signal stations and camps, especially near Innerpeffray and the ancient crossing over the River Earn. The Romanesque bell-tower dates to the 1100s, and was the centre of a community of Culdees. What, you've never heard of a Culdee? Well, it was the original Culdees in Muthill that had the very big mouths. Yup. They could eat a tree whole; roots, branches, the lot. Would I kid you?